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Questlove Brings Keith Olbermann Up to Speed on Hip-Hop Origins with 201-Song Playlist

“Saying you ignored rap for 27 years is basically saying you’re indifferent to the very black lives you champion on your platform.”

Over the weekend, as the internet continued to deliberate Eminem doing exactly what he was supposed to do as a pop star with a massive Trump following, Twitter personalities weighed in, and occasionally clashed, over the earnestness and overall packaging of the contentious Detroit MC’s line-drawing theatrics.

One particularly interesting thread to follow during this time of introspection was that of Questlove, who cut straight through Keith Olbermann’s “27 years of doubts about rap” with a bleak assessment of what that statement actually means coming from a person elevated to the position of political pundit by a number of new and lifestyle outlets.

I mean nothin shocks in these numb times but lol Bernstein saw beauty in the Beatles. You have to have your mind SET to shut out hip hop.

Just a few hours later, still before the sun came up that morning, Questo sent Olbermann a crash course in hip-hop origins that proved he would have had to have been deaf to forty years or more of black music to have not acknowledged hip-hop as the rightful heir to funk and disco, that Big Daddy Kane, Rakim and KRS-One were the Marvin, James and Sly of their day.

The 201-song collection is available to stream via Spotify below, featuring classic funk and deep cuts from the era, the stuff of iconic breaks and dusty soul loops, near and dear to the hearts of heads.